Your Fish, The Pyromaniac
by BBirdy
Summary: Something in Camp is fishy (ten to one it's Leo) This Is the sequel to Leo's Tail which I have promised for a long time. Leo has control of his his fishy side. Or does he? And there's still a quest to complete. Can he handle it all? K plus for blood and kissing


Leo's POV

The air below deck was thick with smoke. Coughing I waved it aside. Maybe I should've gotten Annabeth. _No_ , I thought defiantly, _I can do this. I've been doing this for months. I built the entire ship myself for the god's sake._

Another wave of black fog wafted over me, choking my lungs. I felt like I was drowning all over.

Panic replaced logical thinking and I backed out of the cloud.

"Leo Valdez, get a hold of yourself," I muttered, rubbing my head. "It's not like you can drown anyway."

Memories of the last few days washed over me.

 _I could barely comprehend the words being shouted behind me. Everything in my head was fuzzy and I didn't even have the energy to be scared about falling into the ocean._

 _I hit the surface of the ice cold ocean with the force of a bullet and sank. The ice cold water flowed into my brain and I felt conscious thought return. Kicking my legs I managed to stay in the same place, the ship right next to me, slowly coming to a stop._

 _What was going on? I felt my neck where the stinging pain had ceased. Three lines stuck out from the flash like scabs or something. Water passed into them and I breathed a stream of bubbles out of my mouth. I was breathing underwater! Breathing!_

Shaking my head I turned back to the engine. I could not get distracted now. I only had a few moments before we arrived at camp and rattling around in engine seemed to calm my frazzled noise.

Turning to the control panel I did my best to get everything back to normal. With the stress and the smoke I knew my fingers were catching fire every few seconds. My usual concentration was breaking; my heart was pounding faster and faster. How had I not gone into cardiac arrest or something?

I take full responsibility for what happened. I know it was all my fault. It was only one dial. I had never installed the stupid thing anyway. That was all Annabeth's choice. But I still chose to ignore her suggestion. In a way it was still my stubbornness in refusing help. The little dial I hadn't given a second though judged the temperature of the room. with my complete lack of control over my newly returned fire abilities it was a recipe for disaster. I hadn't noticed that it had finally stopped hurting me.

The steam powered crank blew after about a minute. No longer cooling the back of the engine I couldn't reach and mixed with my ever rising temperature… well you can assume.

The last knocked me backward into the wall, gravity tugging my down to land on my tool box.

"No!" I yelled standing and squishing myself behind the engine. I had to make it to camp. Then I would let my ever loyal dragon ship fade but I wouldn't ever let it go without a fight. It was blown to bits. "Okay," I took a deep breath to control my twitching fingers. I had to control this. "Okay okay okay. _C_ _á_ _lmese_ moron," I continued to mutter like the mad man I was. As hard and taxing as the work was, pulling and welding the pieces back into place it gave me a few minutes to calm down.

I got the cooling system back on line and the steam heating back up I got a face and chest full of freezing cold ocean spray. I expected it to sizzle on contact with my skin. I was mistaken. My body, so desperate to cool down after having been foreign from it for over a week started too cool down. I felt a thick armor start to travel down my chest and a painful ripping t my neck, the second set of lungs aching for water.

No. I had to control it. The end of the curse had given me power to control it.

It felt really nice though, to feel the water spry. My eyes closed and I felt my knees shaking, standing together I felt as if my thighs were being bound together with copious amounts o duct tape.

No! I would control it. "It's okay," I pulled my legs apart and took a very deep breath" You can control this. Calm down. Don't change."

It started to work and I felt the skin

When I stood up again I looked over the engine room. It wasn't getting much worse or better. There was nothing else to be done. It was time to prepare the defenses, and myself for battle.

Practically flying up the stairs I looked over the three screens that popped up with information.

"How do you take that all in?" I leapt back, my already thundering heart about to pop out of my chest.

"Don't carte me like that Pipes," I clutched my chest, doing my best to summon a smile. "You nearly put me in cardiac arrest."

"Sorry," the was smacking her thigh with the flat of her blade, looking about as nervous as I felt. Her hair was pulled back into a tight pony tail, with help form Annabeth I had no doubt. Hair would not be a distraction in this battle. I should have probably done something about my nearing afro but I would be on the ship and I could have steered this thing into battle blind. Piper's billion color eyes were flashing near gray with worry.

"Relax," I wished for half a second I had her charm speak so that I could keep her calm. "We're going to win this," I winked. "You've got your good luck charm; me."

Piper cracked a small smile. "Thanks Leo."

"Anything for the lovely lady," I said. Turning back to the screens I made a few adjustments before casing my eyes on the horizon. We had been at sea so long it was disconcerting to see land before us. What really got me was how feast we were approaching. I thought I had more time than I really did. Swearing up a storm in my head I grabbed the wii remote and pulled us up and over by a couple of degrees. At the angle we'd have a better chance of coming up alongside camp so the others could fly down and attack. This was going to work out. This was going to work out. The new mantra to keep myself calm replaced the foul language I didn't dare utter.

"Leo?" Jason came up beside his girlfriend, taking her hand and giving it a sharp squeeze.

"Hmm?" I kept my gaze firmly on the controls, finding a few things to mess with or if so that I wouldn't have to look him in the eyes.

"Percy says we should be there in less than a half hour. You should get some armor on or. Do you even have armor?"

"Nope," I smiled and gestured around me. "I'm staying on the ship. That's my armor."

The others came up the steps, looking grim and determined and when Jason and piper turned to talk to them it gave me a chance to escape their worried glares. I knew their concerns. What if the ship was boarded, what if I was separated from the ship all that stuff. They forgot I could also light myself up to the melting point of metal. If anyone got close enough to touch me their armor would melt onto their skin. Which, to be honest, even without fire powers is an extremely painful experience.

Checking all the ropes on the ship I pulled myself up to the mast without using my legs. The still felt shaky and I was not going to fall back to the ship. Knotting the final knot I slid down the ropes back to the deck. My legs took the impact firmly. I was alright.

Running back to the controls I caught Hazel's eye. Her golden gaze was piercing, like she was trying to x-ray me.

I tried to keep her eyes, trying not to blink but it was no use.

She walked away from the anxious group. "Leo are you alright?"

"Peachy," I refused to look at her this time.

They were all here, all staying mostly still, ready to listen to anything anyone had to say. If I wanted to tell them the truth about the last week this might be my last chance. Glancing over to them I saw the stiff limbs, the set jaws and the steeled gazes. I couldn't distract them. We had to keep concentrations on the battle ahead. I couldn't tell them.

We approached camp faster than I would like and I cleared my throat loudly. "This hunk of junk is about to become a fully fired up weapon of war. I'd advise getting yourselves out of firing range."

"Leo," Frank looked me over. "Don't try to hit the Romans. We're trying to drive them away, not kill them. They're still just campers like us."

"I'm no killer," I slapped a hand to my chest, pretending to be hurt. "I just want to scare the pants off of them."

He gave me a searching look, but I saw a small smile creeping to the corners of his mouth. It was nice to try and relive some of the tension in the others.

"Go," I waved my arms at them, my eyes on the camp only five minutes from us now. There was smoke, fire, battles. It was every bit the worst we'd thought it would be.

I saw Percy's sea green eyes glaze over. This was his home, his real home. I knew how he felt. Seeing my first real home falling to pieces like this was… heartbreaking didn't even start to cover it.

We reached the beach, Festus's confirmation that his head was over land was enough for me. I nodded at Jason who nodded at me before summoning the wind around him and took Piper down to the ground where he came in, sword swinging and the smell of ozone leaving me in no doubt that the lightning had been freed.

Frank took after him, becoming a giant eagle. Hazel climbed on and they soared out of sight.

Percy and Annabeth still stayed on deck and again I cleared my throat. Why was it harder to force them away? Why couldn't they just go? I was always horrible at goodbyes. No… not goodbye. "You should get going," I called.

Annabeth turned to me and smiled. Without warning she leaned forward and kissed my cheek. "Good luck," she spoke softly.

"You too," I blinked, a bit surprised.

She turned and Percy and she slid down the rope.

I watched them vanish and steeled myself. This was going to be okay. We were going to win this. Closing my eyes I let my hands fly across the board in a sequence I'd memorized long long ago. The final defense this poor hunk of junk had.

"Come on Festus," I grinned. "Let's have a little fun."

 **heh, heh, heh... Hi. The long asked for, long promised sequel to Leo's tail. (please don't kill me.) Tell me what you think of the intro please**

 **Also thank Geko Stew for the title ;)**


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